Articles

Apparently we had a federal budget last week. It seemed more like Christmas. Our new Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau, dressed as Santa Clause landed on our roof top and slid down the chimney bearing gifts for all. Throw financial caution to the wind, this is the season for giving. To help celebrate Christmas in … Federal budget looked more like Christmas giving

Canada’s largest bank made a significant move that greatly affected thousands of investors. It is just another example of individual investors taking a backseat in the Canadian financial services industry. The Royal Bank of Canada made a change to one of its mutual funds. No longer would the fund hold individual stocks and bonds, but … RBC change results in higher taxes for some investors

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has been caught in an embarrassing mess. It appears it has turned a blind eye to wealthy families who were hiding income in order to not pay their share of income tax. Back in 2012 one of Canada’s largest accounting firms was alleged to have created fancy offshore tax shelter strategies for … Fairness has evaporated from income tax rules

One of the most interesting aspects of investing is human nature. Understanding investments is difficult. Understanding human behaviour often seems impossible. Many times the weak link in the investment process is not the investments, it is human investors. There has been endless investment research that links poor investor decision-making as the main cause for financial … Human pessimism hurts performance of investments

The more you worry about losing money, the more often it happens. Most often the stock market sleeps. Small gains and small losses and the bottom line is that not much happens. Then the market awakes and all bets are off. Volatility brings out the worst in investors. Markets today are very volatile and therefore … Emotional decisions lead to losses; invest in the long term

How much money will you need every year to support your future retirement? That is the “million dollar” question. Many find it difficult to make ends meet and to budget their spending while they have a regular paycheck. Once their income stops, planning becomes much more difficult. Last week an Ipsos poll conducted for Sun … Advice from retirees to younger generation – start saving early